Responsible gambling is the set of social responsibility initiatives by the gambling industry—including governments and gaming control boards, operators (such as casinos), and vendors—to ensure the integrity and fairness of their operations and to promote awareness of harms associated with gambling, such as gambling addiction.
Up to 73% of people gamble at least once a year, meaning that there are over 50 million gamblers in the UK betting at online casinos, land casinos, bookies, or betting sites.
What is meant by responsible gambling in the UK?
Responsible gambling is a pretty simple concept – it’s a commitment from online casinos, high-street bookies, and land casinos to keep gamblers safe from the risks that come from betting.
There are many different policies and actions that are involved in responsible gambling, but first and foremost amongst them are:
- Preventing underage gambling
- Protecting vulnerable gamblers
- Keeping gambler’s data private
- Securing all betting payments
- Marketing that’s ethical
Responsible gambling is directed by legislation passed by the UK government and enforced by gambling regulators.
Fortunately the UK has some of the most stringent gambling laws in the world and any bookmaker or betting site that operates in Britain are required, by law, to offer and promote responsible gambling to all of their betting customers.
Responsible gambling protects vulnerable gamblers
Vulnerable gamblers are punters who may be susceptible to addiction – something that affects many people, particularly those that have other mental issues, such as depression and anxiety.
Online casinos use a number of tools to protect vulnerable gamblers from addictive behaviour, offering time-outs or blocks on their website that limit people’s betting activity.
Developing tools to identify risks
There is no denying that the fast-growing and strictly regulated iGaming market needs better tools to tackle problem-gambling, especially as lawmakers have increased their interest in player protection.
Rdentify allows you to identify problem gamblers with increased accuracy and prevent them from gambling on your site, thus increasing compliance with Safer Gambling legislation and reducing fines and reputational damage.
In our previous blog ‘UK Gambling Commission fines for social responsibility failings’ we talk about the signs of problem gambling being often subtle and spread across multiple areas of the business. Players also often chat to different support agents over time, meaning vulnerable players and their common cues are often missed. The sheer number of live chats on a day-to-day basis also make it difficult for humans to monitor. The Rdentify solution can integrate and analyse all of this data, both historical and current. By integrating AI into your pre-existing systems, the chance of spotting the signs of problem gambling earlier are therefore significantly increased.
An operator’s risk data can also be visualised so in-depth trend analysis can be studied, while Rdentify never process or store any personal data. All such data is anonymised and only the player ID will be transferred through the engine. The system has been developed by consulting some of the iGaming industry’s best data science, compliance and operations experts, meaning it is tailor-made for gambling operators.
If you are keen to find out more and would like to chat to our experts, please contact us.
You can also book your FREE demo and see how you can take care of your responsible gambling today.
